44th Parl. 1st Sess.
March 21, 2024 10:00AM
- Mar/21/24 10:09:30 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the second petition that I have comes from Canadians who are concerned about the environmental panel on climate change's report, which has warned us repeatedly that rising temperatures over the next two decades will bring widespread devastation and extreme weather. The residents of Kingston and the Islands who signed this petition call upon the Government of Canada to move forward immediately with bold emissions caps for the oil and gas sector that are comprehensive in scope and realistic in achieving the targets Canada has set to achieve by 2030.
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- Mar/21/24 12:57:15 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, under the Liberal government, the cost of everyday essentials is going up. In fact, even while they talk about their much vaunted heating pump program, we have a recent story from Nova Scotia where families are facing power bills. Families are saying that they need one job just to live and another job just to pay their heating bills. What many, if not most, of these families have in common is that they all have heat pumps. The costs are rising for these families as well. It is not just families that are burning oil and gas or natural gas to heat their heat homes. Electricity and everything else is going up under the Liberal government.
In fact, the average family of four will pay $700 more for groceries in 2024 because of the Liberal carbon tax, and it is quite remarkable that, after years of such a stark trend, the Liberal and NDP members refuse to acknowledge the terrible impacts of their carbon tax. With each hike, Canadians are forced to dig deeper into their pockets just to afford to live.
This Liberal carbon tax is driving up the cost of everything in this country. The inflation trajectory remains uncertain, and while there is hope that inflation will come down followed by some interest rate cuts, the Liberal government seems intent on quashing that progress with a 23% tax hike on April 1.
When the history of this government is written, it will be a story of how out of touch the Prime Minister has become with the challenges of working-class people. The costs of the Prime Minister's annual taxpayer-funded vacations spirals out of control at the same time that prices of the essential goods Canadians need to live are hitting 40,000 feet.
It is time for the Prime Minister to admit he is wrong, spike his April 1 tax hike and get rid of this inflationary carbon tax for good. If he is confident Canadians support his carbon tax plan, it is time for him to call an election, give Canadians an opportunity in an electoral referendum and give them a choice as to whether they want this Liberal carbon tax.
The Prime Minister claims that the carbon tax will help the environment and help deal with climate change, but if that were the case, then I would think we would have hit at least one of our climate targets by now. In fact, the climate change performance index now ranks Canada as 62nd out of 67 countries, dropping it four places from last year, and after eight years of the Liberal government's failure, it is abundantly clear that its carbon taxes are simply another reason to grab more money from hard-working Canadians. It is not an environment plan; it is a tax plan.
Liberals claim that we need a carbon tax or else Canada will be beset by more floods, fires and hurricanes. This is simply not true. Even the Liberals' own environment minister admitted that we may not see an impact from the Liberal carbon tax until 2060. Maybe by 2060 we will see an impact from their carbon tax. A young man like me will be drawing on old age security by the time the Liberal government believes their carbon tax will just maybe have an environmental impact. It is not an environment plan; it is a tax plan.
Right now, Canadians are losing their homes. They are losing their vehicles, and they are skipping meals. They cannot wait until 2060 to maybe get a result.
We are only a quarter of the way through the year, and food banks are already predicting that they will have an additional one million visits. That is on top of a record-breaking year last year. The government claims to be evidence based. These are damning facts, but the Liberal government is blind to the impact its policies are having on Canadians. It is either that, or they just do not care.
Last year, 36% of charities had to turn people away because the charities are running out of resources, and in some cases, the demand for food has become a public safety issue. Last week in Montreal we saw police called in to control crowds at a food bank because hundreds more hungry Canadians showed up than were expected.
These are stories reminiscent of the Great Depression, when police were deployed to disperse bread lineups. While Canadians wait in food lineups, Liberals go out to say they do not have it so bad and that those in other countries would be glad to swap places with us. Some Liberals are even saying that Canada is doing great in comparison to Afghanistan. That is setting the bar far too low for Canadians, and it is cold comfort for hungry Canadians today who are waiting in lineups.
It is clear that the carbon tax is not only ineffective, but also deeply unfair. Despite the promises of these rebates, the reality is that most Canadian families will end up paying more in taxes than they receive in these so-called rebates. The Parliamentary Budget Officer has been abundantly clear: Canadian families will pay more than what they get back. The average Alberta family I represent will have to pay $911 in additional taxes than they will receive in rebates.
The Prime Minister claimed just yesterday in the House that every penny collected is returned to Canadians. It is simply not true. In fact, the Liberals are holding onto more than $2 billion in carbon taxes that they have refused to give back to Canadians. They broke their promises to small businesses, whose carbon tax they collected, but they refused to give back the money they raised from small businesses. That is not to mention the GST, which is charged on top of the carbon tax, a tax on a tax that is raising hundreds of millions of dollars for the Liberal government, and it is not being returned to Canadians.
Not only will Canadian families pay more than they get back, but because of the Liberal government's inflationary deficits, our nation's debt has more than doubled, something that the youngest generation of Canadians will have to deal with for decades to come. Also, Canadians who will be renewing variable rate mortgages will find that their mortgages are even bigger than they were before they started paying for it as the cost of their interest piles up faster than the principal they are paying down.
It is not just Canadians paying variable rates. Canadians renewing their fixed rate mortgages, for example this fall and next fall, are going to face more than the doubling, and in some cases the tripling, of their interest rate costs. Mortgage delinquencies right now are up by 50%, and polls show that 55% of Canadians who currently do not own a home believe they will never own a home. That is especially true for younger Canadians. Even the average rental price for residential properties was at a record high of $2,192 in January of this year. That is a 10% increase year over year.
Canadians cannot afford this. They cannot afford the doubling of housing costs that has occurred over the last eight years. They certainly do not have confidence that the Liberal government, which made this problem happen, has the solutions to fix them. If the Liberal government is good at one thing, it is breaking promises. Its carbon tax is higher than what it was ever supposed to be. It is higher than what it ever ran on. It is certainly not revenue-neutral, as the PBO has proven, and it is not helping Canadians reach their emissions targets. There are 70% of Canadians, and 70% of the provinces, who oppose raising the carbon tax on April 1. The national consensus is clear that Canadians from coast to coast to coast want to spike the hike and axe the tax.
Canadians are sick and tired of paying absurd amounts for everyday essentials. My constituents contact me every day with examples of their power bills and what they are paying at the pump. They are outraged at this cost-of-living crisis. They are especially outraged about the increase costs for groceries and home heating, not to mention the increased cost of their mortgages. It is not only young families that are struggling. Seniors, people on fixed incomes, students and those with disabilities are struggling. The NDP-Liberal government is not worth the cost. Canadians can see that. They want an election.
When will the Prime Minister realize that Canadians no longer have confidence in his government. They want him to axe his inflationary carbon tax. They want an election, and they want a choice. When are the Liberals going to give it to them?
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- Mar/21/24 1:04:39 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, it is a fact that emissions are starting to decrease, but they would decrease faster if it were not for the oil and gas sector, the sector that is predominant in the member's province and the sector his party is tied to at the hip.
There is no carbon tax. It is a price on carbon. Who said that? The Supreme Court said that. In its ruling on the Greenhouse Gas Pricing Pollution Act, it said, “there is ample evidence that the fuel and excess emission charges imposed by Parts 1 and 2 of the GGPPA have a regulatory purpose.... [They] cannot be characterized as taxes; rather, they are regulatory charges whose purpose is to advance the GGPPA’s regulatory purpose by altering behaviour.”
Why is the member contradicting the Supreme Court of Canada?
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- Mar/21/24 1:05:43 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, most Canadians do not have a legal background, but I think every Canadian can see through the weasel words between carbon pricing and carbon taxes. Everyone knows that it is a carbon tax. They are paying it at the pumps. They are paying it when they go to the grocery store. They are paying it when they heat their homes.
What the carbon tax is meant to do is, essentially, shrink the economy. The government says emissions are starting to come down because it is bringing our economy down. It is our resource sector that has powered our dollar and our GDP, and for the first time in modern history, Canadians' GDP per capita is going down. It is the worst record since the Great Depression.
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- Mar/21/24 2:35:27 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Liberals' schemes and spin jobs cannot cover up the cruel fact that the cost of everything is up and so are emissions, because the carbon tax is a cash grab and not an environmental plan.
The Parliamentary Budget Officer tells the truth, unlike the Liberals. As most Canadians will, Albertans will pay almost $1,000 more this year than they get back in fake rebates. Today, Conservatives will vote non-confidence in the costly coalition to axe the tax, build the homes, fix the budget and stop the crime.
Will the Prime Minister finally listen to the majority of Canadians and premiers and spike the hike today or call a carbon tax election so Canadians can decide and axe it themselves?
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- Mar/21/24 2:48:04 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is extremely important that all sectors of the economy pay their fair share. It is extremely important that all sectors of the economy make their contribution to the fight against climate change.
We are certainly working very closely with the oil and gas sector, as we are with other sectors of the economy, to ensure, very much, that they do so. Moving forward, we need to see more progress. I have been very clear: It is important that we see reductions in absolute emissions as we move forward. I am sure we are going to see that. We are certainly going to continue to push the sector to accomplish that.
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- Mar/21/24 2:52:35 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, after 15 years of that NDP-Liberal plan, emissions are up and British Columbians continue to get poorer. The B.C. NDP budget says that $9 billion will be taken from British Columbians over the next three years, but it will only give $3 billion back in rebates, pocketing the extra $6 billion.
The carbon tax coalition is making the most expensive place in the country more expensive to live by jacking up the price of gas, groceries and home heating. Why does it not give Canadians a voice and allow us to vote to spike the carbon tax?
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- Mar/21/24 2:53:50 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, as I said, the Conservative Party is certainly entitled to its own opinions, but it is not entitled to its own facts. Emissions are down and Canada is growing a clean-growth economy for the future.
I was in Germany earlier this week and the German government told me that Canada was a model for the world in the fight against climate change and the work to address the issue that is an existential threat and to grow a clean economy. We signed an agreement on hydrogen that is going to create jobs and economic opportunity in Atlantic Canada.
We believe in climate change, we are fighting climate change, and those climate deniers on the other side of the House should be ashamed of themselves.
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- Mar/21/24 4:26:00 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I want to correct the member on many of the falsehoods he stated, and not even with my own facts. The Prime Minister's own hand-picked Parliamentary Budget Officer said that more Canadians are worse off because of this carbon tax scam, and there is more and more proof. An average Alberta family will pay $2,900, but the rebate is only $2,000. In Ontario, where the member is from, an average family will pay $1,600 in this carbon tax scam and will only get $1,000 back. The PBO has debunked everything the member is saying, and I will remind the Liberals that it has not helped emissions come down.
When 70% of Canadians and premiers, including the premier in the Liberal leader's province and a Liberal premier in Atlantic Canada, have asked the government to spike the hike because families cannot afford to eat, heat and house themselves, why is the Liberals' radical ideology about this carbon tax more important than those 70% of Canadians who are asking the government to spike the hike? Why do they not let Canadians decide, in a carbon tax election, whether they want to keep this carbon tax scam or scrap the Prime Minister and go with a common-sense Conservative plan?
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- Mar/21/24 4:27:34 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I consider the member for Calgary Forest Lawn a friend, and I understand where he is coming from, but I humbly disagree with him, of course. In the province of Ontario, an average family of four will receive $1,120. The rural top-up will be 20%. From the Statistics Canada material that I have seen, and from what I have heard from some fellow economists, on average, that would ensure that eight out of 10 families will be better off in my riding of Vaughan—Woodbridge and across Canada.
We understand that we need to put in place effective measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while we build a strong and inclusive economy. As many individuals would state, putting a price on pollution is really the most effective way of doing it and will account for about one-third of the emissions reductions by 2030.
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- Mar/21/24 4:29:23 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, putting a price on pollution is the right thing to do. There are obviously different policy measures and instruments that we could put in place to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The reason we have a price on pollution is that it is a federal backstop. When some provinces, I would argue, abdicate their responsibility for a cleaner environment and a stronger economy, that is when the federal backstop kicks in. The Supreme Court has ruled that is a correct method to proceed.
I agree with the hon. member from British Columbia that we have had three elections where the price on pollution was part of the ballot for Canadians, and Canadians overwhelmingly chose a healthier environment and a stronger economy.
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- Mar/21/24 4:32:47 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am thankful for the opportunity to speak to this motion, which is an opposition day motion by the Conservative Party of Canada.
I stand here today, first and foremost, to speak as the member of Parliament for Ottawa Centre, the community that has given me the great honour to serve it in the House. As someone who knocks on doors often and speaks to his constituents, as many members in the House do, I can say that fighting climate change is the number one issue that I hear about when I am speaking to my constituents.
In fact, I recently sent out a mailer to all my constituents. I am sure many members received it; many of them live in my riding when they are here working on behalf of their constituents. It was a pre-budget consultation document; I like to reach out to as many constituents as possible, asking them to share their thoughts on what should be included in the upcoming budget. I got thousands of responses back, both on paper and online. We just went through and analyzed the information that we received, and the number one issue that was highlighted was climate change.
They wanted Parliament and the Government of Canada to do more to fight climate change to make sure we are reducing emissions and doing more for that. In that commentary, I did not hear issues around the price on pollution; I heard a request, need and demand to do more.
I admit that affordability was also one of the issues recognized. Better health care was another issue that was part of the feedback received. However, climate change, and fighting climate change, was the number one issue.
I am a very factual guy, and I want to discuss the issue around the price on pollution in a factual way. What we are debating right now, and Conservatives are entitled to oppose this system, is identifying that carbon is a pollutant that is causing global warming and that greenhouse gas emissions have to be reduced in order to effectively fight climate change. Moreover, from an economics perspective, putting a price on pollution is the best way to help change people's behaviour and ensure people are not using products that cause pollution.
That is basically what this scheme is. It is to ensure that the way we incentivize solutions that are less carbon intensive and cause fewer greenhouse gas emissions is by making the use of fossil fuels more expensive. Therefore, we have chosen a mechanism that puts a price on pollution.
As we heard when the member for Vaughan-Woodbridge mentioned it earlier, the federal government's scheme is just a backstop. The provinces and territories are free to have their own mechanisms. In fact, someone mentioned the province of Ontario. I had the honour of serving at the provincial level when we brought in a cap and trade system in Ontario, putting a price on carbon that way.
In fact, it was the same system that exists in Quebec and in California, and we actually engaged in a carbon trading mechanism. Premier Doug Ford, who is a Conservative, got rid of that system. However, if it were in place today, there would be no price on pollution in Ontario. The provincial system would have prevailed, as is the case in Quebec and in British Columbia.
As such, this particular price on pollution mechanism exists as a backstop only for those provinces and territories where there is no price on pollution. That is point number one.
The price on pollution is in place in order to help incentivize innovation, change people's behaviour and have them move away from using more carbon-intensive or fossil fuel-intensive products. We recognize that this price on pollution will cause some hardship for those who do not have that much disposal income and that the cost of certain things will go up as a result, as the transition is being made. However, this is why the second element of this program or this scheme is really important. That is the Canada carbon rebate. At the end of the day, Canadian families and the consumer are paying the price on pollution. The rebate makes sure that the money collected goes back to Canadians, so that they are not left behind. That aspect is really important.
The Canada carbon rebate goes to 80% of Canadian families, and in my province of Ontario, a family of four receives $1,120 per year. That is about $280 every quarter that they are receiving in order to offset the cost that they may be paying in the price on pollution.
We have thought through both of those elements in terms of how we can effectively reduce emissions by making pollutants, such as carbon, more expensive and, at the same time, making sure that the monies collected are then given back to Canadian consumers and Canadian families. Thus, they are not left behind and are able to make ends meet.
From a public policy perspective, I think we all recognize the fact that climate change is real. However, in order for us to have a strong economy, meet the international obligations that we are part of through the Kyoto protocol and work with other countries that are also taking action on climate change, every political party that wants to govern needs to have a credible plan to deal with this.
What I find baffling in this debate is that we only hear slogans from those in the Conservative Party. There is nothing about a plan; they have just created a tag line and a bumper sticker. Perhaps they are entitled to do that, but before they ask for another election, they need to be able to come with a credible plan or acknowledge the fact, which is perhaps what they believe, that climate change is something they do not want to address. There will be another election. Welcome to democracy, Mr. Speaker; thankfully, that is a given. However, whatever the case, let us hear it; Conservatives should tell us their views on climate change.
I can tell members that, in speaking to my constituents in Ottawa Centre, inaction is not a plan. They want real, concrete action by their government in order to address climate change. They do not want just a plan on the back of a napkin, but a credible plan that would actually make a difference.
However, as I think the member for Waterloo said, this is not a new idea. Mr. Mulroney has been mentioned a few times; he championed the Montreal Protocol, which resulted in stopping the depletion of the ozone layer. Aside from that, one of his biggest legacies was to put an end to acid rain, which was caused in the eastern part of the country by sulphur dioxide emissions. Yes, it was a cap and trade system. However, what was the cap and trade? It was a price put on sulphur to make it more expensive to emit sulphur dioxide, which resulted in the elimination of acid rain.
The point is, we can look at different kinds of mechanisms, and that is what we are trying to do. However, we need to hear a credible plan from the Conservatives. This is a plan that is making an impact, and we are starting to see a reduction in emissions in Canada because of our action.
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- Mar/21/24 4:46:36 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for his question.
I agree with the member. We need to do more, absolutely. We have a good foundation. I really do believe that we have a good starting point. For once, Canada has a credible plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. We are starting to see that happen.
The way to move forward is not with slogans. We need to build on this. Climate change is not going to get solved in just one day or overnight. That is why inaction is not a plan. We need to strengthen what we are doing in terms of fighting climate change, and we need to do more to ensure that Canada remains a leader when it comes to building a better and prosperous future.
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- Mar/21/24 5:03:38 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, as I said in my speech, Quebec imports food from the rest of Canada. The farmers who grow the food pay the carbon tax. The food processors pay the carbon tax. The carbon tax that is paid by those who transport and process Quebec's food has an impact on the price.
People will not see any mention of the carbon tax on their grocery bills. However, maybe an $8 bunch of celery would only have cost $7 were it not for the carbon tax paid by the farmers who provided the product. That is a simplified example, but that is how it works. This is having a major impact. As I also mentioned in my speech, Canada is currently ranked 58th out of 63 countries for greenhouse gas emissions, so imposing a tax to save the environment is completely ridiculous.
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Mr. Speaker, it is good to be here to speak about such an important issue and about our demand to allow the Liberals to have a carbon tax election.
Why are we asking for this? It is because 70% of Canadians, 70% of the premiers, are now saying that they oppose the Liberal-NDP carbon tax because of the impact it is having on their everyday lives.
I find it interesting, throughout the speeches today, that my Liberal and NDP colleagues keep professing that this is not impacting the cost of living and that this has nothing to do with affordability. That is simply not true.
We have the facts from the Parliamentary Budget Officer. The Parliamentary Budget Officer testified at committee, and he said, “once you factor in the rebate and also the economic impacts...the majority of households will see a negative impact as a result of the carbon tax.”
Canadians are waking up to this every single day. Certainly my constituents in Foothills are, who are paying $2,900 a year in the carbon tax. The Liberals say that they are so much better off. They are getting about $1,800 of their own money back, leaving them a thousand dollars worse off.
I do not understand why the Liberals and the NDP are fighting so hard to say that this is not impacting the cost of living. They should be celebrating this every single day when they hear about Canadians struggling to feed themselves, heat their homes, pay their mortgages or pay their interest rates. This is exactly what they want from the carbon tax. They want the carbon tax to be so expensive that it forces Canadians to change their behaviour, regardless of the fact that in my riding of 33,000 square kilometres, we do not have public transit. It does not exist. There are many parts of this country where we do not have alternatives. That is what makes this so frustrating and why Canadians have just had enough of the Liberal-NDP carbon tax coalition.
They also talk about how they have won elections while campaigning on the carbon tax. They misled Canadians in those elections. They said they would never increase the carbon tax higher than $50 a tonne. On April 1, it goes up 23% to $80 a tonne, on its way to $170 a tonne by 2030. The promise to Canadians from the Liberal-NDP carbon tax coalition was that the carbon tax would never go over $50 a tonne. It is amazing how the song changes when we are not in an election year.
That is why we are saying that, if they are so confident that Canadians support their 23% increase in the carbon tax, then go to an election and let Canadians decide. However, I am doubtful that they will vote to make that happen today because they know that 70% of Canadians oppose the carbon tax, right across this country.
The other part that they do not mention is that the GST is charged on top of the carbon tax. We also now have the numbers from the Parliamentary Budget Officer for just how punitive that GST is and what Canadians are paying. Last year, Canadians paid $486 million in GST just on the carbon tax. Next year, when they increase the carbon tax by 23%, that number will be a billion dollars.
Cumulatively, since the Liberals brought in their carbon tax, Canadians have paid $6 billion in GST just on the carbon tax. Not only is the carbon tax not reducing emissions and is clearly a tax grab, but the GST is just the whipped cream on top of their tax ice-cream cone. It is unbelievable, the amount that Canadians are being punished through the carbon tax, a tax on a tax.
Thankfully, again, Conservatives have a private member's bill to remove the GST from the carbon tax, and I certainly encourage my colleagues from across the floor to support that.
The carbon tax also has an incredibly devastating impact on Canadian farmers, which certainly leads to higher prices for Canadians on the grocery store shelves. I know my colleagues have mentioned that today. Common sense says this: If we increase taxes on the farmer who grows the food, the trucker who transports the food, the manufacturer who processes the food and the retailer who sells the food, do we know who will feel it at the end of that supply chain? It's the consumer who buys the food.
That is why food inflation stays well above the Canadian inflation index. Farmers are paying the carbon tax over and over again, when they buy fertilizer and fuel, when they plant their seeds, when they move their products to market and when they are hauling cattle or grain. Every single time, they are paying the carbon tax.
The Agriculture Carbon Alliance did a survey of 50 farms earlier this month. That survey of 50 farms showed that those farms across Canada were paying more than $320,000 in carbon taxes in one month. That is just 50 farms. We have close to 200,000 farms in Canada. If a small percentage is already paying more than $320,000 a month, and if we extrapolate that over every farm in Canada, members can understand why farmers are so frustrated with the Liberal-NDP carbon tax coalition and the punishment it is laying on them again on April 1, increasing the carbon tax by another 23%.
I have to ask, why? We put forward Bill C-234, which would give an exemption of the carbon tax on natural gas and propane for farmers to heat and cool their barns, to dry their grain and to power greenhouses, which grow fresh produce for Canadians across this country.
However, the Liberals have been playing games with that bill, trying to kill that bill in the Senate and, again, here in the House of Commons. We know that legislation would save farmers close to $1 billion a year, making them more economically viable and making food production more affordable for farmers, and certainly for Canadian consumers at the grocery stores.
However, the Liberals do not want to support legislation that supports Canadian farmers. Their answer, all the time, is that farmers are very supportive of the carbon tax. That is what the agriculture minister says every time I ask him a question on this issue. I have spoken to farmers right across this country, and I have not spoken to a single farmer, not one, who has said that we should keep the carbon tax in place and that they are very supportive of the carbon tax.
Farmers do not support the carbon tax, and it is not only due to the punishing higher input costs they have to pay but because it is making them look like laggards. In fact, Canadian farmers set the gold standard in sustainability and stewardship.
A recent report from the Global Institute for Food Security showed that on a ton of canola grown in Saskatchewan, the carbon footprint is 67% lower than anywhere else in the world. A trainload of Canadian wheat could travel around the world three and a half times before it has the same carbon footprint as wheat grown in Europe. These are incredible achievements.
Farmers should be lauded for those accomplishments, not punished with higher carbon taxes, but that is exactly what the Liberal-NDP carbon tax coalition is doing. How did farmers do this? It was not done through punitive regulation and carbon taxes; it was done through embracing new innovation and new technology, something they do every single day.
There are consequences to these carbon taxes. Canadians feel it every single day. I want to talk about some specifics. Collwest grain farm in Collingwood, Ontario, paid $36,000 in carbon taxes in one month. Quattro Farms in Bow Island, Alberta, paid $93,000 in carbon taxes in 2023. The Kielstra farm in my riding of Foothills paid $180,000 in carbon taxes last year to heat and cool their barns for their chickens, which is an animal health issue. A farm in the riding of Simcoe—Grey paid $25,000 in carbon taxes in the month of November alone.
This leads to higher food costs, and we are seeing two million Canadians go to food banks every single month. Those are unprecedented numbers. The Liberals say it has no impact on food costs. The Food Professor, the expert on food pricing in Canada, Dr. Sylvain Charlebois at Dalhousie University, said that inflationary pressures and uncompetitive policies, like the carbon tax, on growing, processing and transporting food will increase the costs of wholesale food by 34%. That is the impact that these policies are having on farmers, on truckers and on Canadian consumers who are just trying to feed their families.
This is unsustainable for Canadian consumers. This is unsustainable for Canadian farmers. My challenge to the Liberal-NDP carbon tax coalition, if they are so proud of this carbon tax and if they think Canadians will support this 23% increase on April 1, is for them to put their money where their mouths are and to call a carbon tax election, and let Canadians decide for themselves.
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Mr. Speaker, I have to say that we can use all the buzzwords that we want in the world, “spike the hike” or “axe the tax” or whatever fancy words that we can come up with, but that does not lead to common sense. In fact, I am really thinking about former prime minister Brian Mulroney today. He actually was a common-sense Conservative who wanted to fight climate change. He did what was necessary and that is what we need to do today: what is necessary.
I realize that no amount of legislative action or policy is going to eliminate the hot air coming from those Conservative benches, but we do need to take action on what climate change means to Canadians. We know that we need to fight climate change. We need to better protect our communities.
You, yourself, Mr. Speaker, in your community, would have felt and understood the realities of what climate change really is and know the importance of acting now.
I am proud to be a part of a government that is working to fight climate change. We are going to do that with our pollution pricing system. That plan is working. The reality is that we are putting a price on pollution. It is the lowest-cost way to reduce pollution causing climate change. As the member opposite is aware, our system is revenue-neutral. It is well established that the cost to Canadians and the Canadian economy to achieve our emissions reduction goals by other means would be far greater.
As I alluded to earlier, while this system allows us to effectively reduce our emissions, it also makes life more affordable for Canadians by ensuring that they are receiving more money back into their pockets than they paid. Every three months we are delivering hundreds of dollars back to families through the Canada carbon rebate, which gives eight out of 10 families more back than they paid, while ensuring that big polluters are paying their fair share.
In provinces where the federal fuel charge applies, a family of four will receive up to $1,800 in Canada carbon rebate amounts for the 2024-25 fiscal year. Residents of these provinces will receive their first of four quarterly Canada carbon rebate payments starting next month in April.
Our government also understands that Canadians who live in rural areas face unique challenges by having to travel longer distances for school, work, groceries, etc. That is why we are proposing, in Bill C-59, to double the rural top-up to 20% of the base rebate amount in recognition of their higher energy needs and more limited access to cleaner transportation options.
In addition, our government is continuing to implement various financial support initiatives for Canadian households. This includes support for home retrofits, energy-efficient heat pumps and electric vehicles.
Doing nothing to fight climate change is simply not an option anymore. The price to pay for inaction would be way too high and that is why we are acting. Young people in our communities tell us how they want us to continue to invest, to continue to make sure that we are fighting climate change and to make sure that all of us have an opportunity to live in a safe society and a clean society in the future.
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